


Echoes

by knightinpinkunderwear



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Alternate Universe, Amnesia, Gen, Name Changes, Sun Warriors - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-02-26
Updated: 2018-02-26
Packaged: 2019-03-24 12:37:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,703
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13811319
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/knightinpinkunderwear/pseuds/knightinpinkunderwear
Summary: He can't remember his name or anything really but he's not worried about that currently, he's worried about the waterlogged bandages around his face and the panther chasing him.____________Zuko gets lost pre-Aang getting freed from the iceberg and suffers from amnesia. Rating may be subject to change.





	Echoes

Prince Zuko had been many things, most of them weren't that impressive. He was the prince, sure, but he was unloved, he was in denial about the latter, he was stubborn, he was angry, but most of all he was scared and he was miserable. His father had disowned him, hadn't hesitated to throw a ball of fire even though he knew it might kill his eldest child. He had let down his father, he  _had to_  make it up to him. How could the prince be so incompetent that he deserved to be without a home or half of his face. Poisonous thoughts continued to linger in the teen's mind as he paced back and forth at the metal railing. The crew had learned to stop caring about Zuko's strange habits a while ago. Like throwing small mirrors overboard. Or flinching whenever fire gets within two feet of his person. Pacing by the railing proved itself harmful as he was swept overboard by the storm. A storm that had come out of no where, the waters had simply turned choppy the winds had started howling and the rain was pelting down upon them. The prince hadn't seen the wave, he hadn't had the time to duck before it slammed into his form and flipped him overboard. Swimming back to the surface was difficult, but at least his armour had not been on, otherwise the prince would have drown under the combined weight of it and the water. He gasped and greedily inhaled what little air he could before the waves forced him beneath the surface again. The process repeated more times than Zuko could count, the frigid salty water biting at his body while it tossed him about like a rag doll, pulling him farther and father away from his ship.

 

* * *

 

Something was nudging him, pushing at his leg. However the thick veil of slumber still held him captive. The nudging grew more violent, a large thing shoved his shoulder into the ground. He blinked open his eyes with a groan, a blurry dark shape taking up most of his vision. Something waterlogged and somewhat soft was clinging to his face. He pulled it off. The image focussed, an eye widened. He screamed, scrambling away from the panther as fast as his wobbly legs would carry him. The panther growled. All thought ceased as sheer panic and survival instincts took over his mind. He ran, a hand clenched tightly over his left eye. He pulled branches back, barely hearing them hit the large cat bounding after him over the blood pumping through his body. He reached a wall and ran to his right, the adrenaline coursing through his veins fueling his actions. He found an opening and bolted in without a thought, making turns when he could and hoping to lose the predator currently hunting him down. Soon he found himself cornered. His sopping wet clothing clinging to his body as it drew ragged breaths. The energy provided by adrenaline had run out, but the terror was still present. Now more than ever. He threw a fist forward and screamed when fire burst from it, flying towards the figure of his imminent death. The cat leapt backwards, it's tail catching some of the fire that it hadn't fled fast enough to avoid. The slit-like pupils narrowed until they were barely visible within the toxic yellow-green of the predator's eyes. The boy screamed, throwing more fire at the beast. It became a lethal game, panther vs fire, but it was easy to predict who would win. The boy was losing control over the flames, barely able to summon them. They drained him. The fire stole his energy, he was trembling with combined exhaustion and horror. He was going to die. But he couldn't accept it, so he kept up at this feeble excuse of fighting. Until all he could summon was smoke. The panther gave a snarl of victory before pouncing. Claws ripped into his jaw and sliced down across his neck, then drew back and tore gashes into his chest. All the while the boy screamed. He clenched his eye shut as the cat launched its jaws to snap his neck. He waited for the pain and death. Instead, red light bloomed behind his eyelid and a pained screech turned into a faint whimper. A hand gripped his shoulder, he was too afraid to scream again. He could feel the blood trickling down his neck and chest and the dark spots in his vision weren't a good sign. The boy could make out several people, all wearing garments of a similar sort. After they ensured the panther was gone the huddled around the boy. He looked pitiful, with one hand clamped over his left eye and the other trying to stop the blood flowing from his neck, leaving the portion on his jaw to bleed freely.

He didn't really remember how he got there but he was sitting, shirtless, in front of a woman as she tended to his wounds. First the gashes across his chest then the ones on his neck with a quick but not rushed pace.

"I am Kaiyo" to woman spoke, a soft smile could be heard in her voice, "What is your name?" Her voice was sweet and soft and her words were gentle, they really shouldn't have inflicted the shock and horror that they did on the boy. He...he was...his name...he didn't know. He didn't  _know_. How could he  _not_  know? How could he not know his  _own_  name? He dug into his mind, forcefully trying to recall anything. No names. No images. There was nothing before the panther.

"I... I don't know"

"Well, do you have any idea how old you are?"

"Thirteen" the number left his lips before he understood what it meant. How could he remember how old he was but not his own name or where he was from?

Kaiyo removed the soppy bandages from around his head, her brows pinched together. It was a nasty burn, the boy barely had an eyelid, the skin was all raw and by the looks of it, infected. The woman cleaned out the wound, with extra care and gentleness. A thick sticky salve was spread over the blistered and burnt skin. Then a clean bandage.

"Should we really trust him? How do we know that his amnesia story is true?"

"He is a boy, still a child, and he has already seen our culture thriving, he must stay" one reasoned.

"And who'll take care of him?" Another voice quipped in response.

"I will." Kaiyo interrupted, a few heads turned.

"Do you know how?"

"Yes, I can care for him, he's hardly an infant." The woman bristled, heads nodded in agreement. The boy in question say quietly in the middle of all the ruckus, attempting to shove away the ache of somewhat familiarity. It was a bad feeling, like a stone sitting heavily in his stomach, pressing against his lungs and making the act of breathing uncomfortable. He nervously stretched and wiggled his toes, not wanting his antics to be noticed by the crowd that seemed so much bigger than himself. The uneasiness in his stomach only lessened when the chief had decided that Kaiyo would indeed be his caretaker.

A week later they had chosen a name for him. Hibiki. He was named echo. As a tribute to the only reason he was alive, found by the sun warriors was because they heard the echoes of his cries for help. Or maybe because he was an echo of a person, trying to figure out who he was before. Either way, it stuck.

Weeks turned to months which turned to two and a half years. Living with Kaiyo was pleasant, it was home, all he really ever knew. And she had always had a comforting draw to Hibiki. She always cared for him without babying him too much. She was just the right kind of mom for him, sympathetic and kind but also driven, and strong. Whenever he needed a hug she was there, and when he needed to get whacked over th head she was also there to snap him out of whatever sorry state of mind he was in. She was a blacksmith and he became her determined apprentice. He may not have been the fastest learner but he was diligent, and would not stop until he'd with accomplished his goal or the universe made it clear that it was impossible. A mindset to pleasing others, straining himself for approval. His bending forms were strong and he mastered dual broadswords quickly after picking up an unwanted pair. Hibiki may have had handicapped hearing and sight on his left but through sheer willpower, he found ways around it. Now that he was just as capable if not more so than any perfectly healthy and able-bodied opponent. He learned of the war that plagued the world for a hundred years now, how Firelord Sozan had started it as well as a disgraceful tradition of slaughtering dragons. How the avatar was missing and that there were no airbenders left. He learned of how the village was secret and no one who visited was allowed to tell that the sun warriors were still thriving. Hibiki was safe, he was well.

But Prince Zuko was missing. Some declared him dead, but the small ship he fell off of still scoured every crevice and shadow for any sign of the boy. They had covered a radius of twenty miles in every direction. They had journeyed into ports and cities searching for a sign of the Prince. It was a wild goose chase after a leaf fluttering away in the wind. It was hopeless. But the crew kept it up, they had owed Iroh a great debt. He was a good man, now he had lost his son and the boy who came to be like a second son to him. So they kept at their fruitless mission to find a boy most were sure had drowned those two and a half years ago. Then, when the ship had cruised much farther south, a mysterious blue light appeared.


End file.
